Nexus Runner [EPIC Progression Fantasy litRPG]

"Manila, Shanghai, Brisbane!" I swore as I looked down at the enormous crab.

It had to stand 40 feet tall, rivaling Velexis's gigantor height, but at least 50 times thicker. Unlike the clockwork insects' ponderous Leviathan, this one looked like a real, live crab, only a million times bigger. The thing's armored shell looked thick enough to shrug off artillery rounds, and his 2 enormous claws, as big as pickup trucks, snapped shut with cracks I heard all the way up in the sky.

Had he hunted something like this in the deep? No wonder he called it a dangerous sport. Could he transform into monsters he defeated? Hopefully he couldn't swap forms halfway through the battle.

"Never accept the terms of a duel set by a lord of the court," Corvath said with a shake of his head. "At least make your death entertaining, fool."

Well, damn. My mind whirled as I considered options. No wonder he hadn't wanted other weapons. He couldn't wield them in crab form, and without my maul and hammer, how could I hit with enough power to hurt such a gigantic monster?

I cast Loot and Soul feed on the whale I'd just defeated, and as I dropped through a cloud of stinking black smoke, with streamers of white energy pouring into me from all sides, I cast Potential Hammer right at the crab's face.

It would cover a 10 yard circle over what should become the main battlefield. I needed every bit of extra power, and the charges accrued from Potential Hammer might prove critical.

Then I Shadow Walked to a spot right behind the huge monster. That was outside of the range of Potential Hammer, but I wanted to test that armor before things got too hot and heavy. Plenty of shadows dotted the island, so I found one and stepped through.

My Wolverine claws snapped into place with a soft click and I charged. That close, the crab loomed high over me. Each of its 8 long legs were at least 4 times my height, keeping the tank-sized body 10 feet off the ground. He stunk too, filling the area with a rotten scent like he'd rolled in dead fish.

Jumping up to rake its armored underbelly would be a waste of time. First, I had to get it down to my height. So I slammed both claws into the lowest joint on the nearest leg with all my Strength and used Force Weaver to stack on my Divergent Strike spell. At the same time, I used Elemental Harmony to dump in 3 Lightning Immunity potions to add lightning to the explosive blast.

My claws barely dug into the heavy bone joint, but it was enough to unleash the stacked magical spells like a blast from an industrial power station. The impact staggered me back and tore the joint apart in a spray of weird, purple blood.

One down, 7 to go.

I set myself to charge in again, but Tydrion-crab whirled about way faster than I expected. His legs slammed into the sandy ground hard enough to send mini geysers with every step, but they moved so fast it was like he danced across the ground as he whirled, one giant claw sweeping around in the world's biggest backhand.

I threw myself to the sand and rolled under the blow. The claw swept past and the wind of its passage kicked sand across my face. Would have gotten in my eyes without my goggles and ethereal battle helm.

Even as I rolled back to my feet, the other claw came slamming down like he wanted to squash me like a bug. I dove aside and the claw thundered down right behind me, so close the explosion of sand sent me tumbling.

Mid-tumble, I set Tether Slide, attached to his unbroken rear leg. Even before I stopped rolling, he tried to swat me again, but my golden chain yanked me away. I soared under his giant shell, the shadow turning the twilight into full night.

I feared he might try dropping down onto me, but he only spun again with that same startling speed. Tether Slide easily adjusted my trajectory to keep up and I slammed into another leg joint. Divergent Strike's 5-minute cooldown would get cut in half by my Squared Circuit ability, but 2 and a half minutes seemed a lifetime away.

I hadn't built up enough charges from Potential Hammer to accomplish anything, but I did have a pretty big KEG charge accumulated from my boots. So I unleashed it all with my strike and, just like I had before, I stacked on 3 potions. This time I tried Ice Immunity potions.

My claws struck true and again barely scratched the thick, bony joint. The blast of pure kinetic energy, transformed into a dagger of ice, sheared right through though.

Another lower section of leg fell free and I laughed. "Two down!"

No time to celebrate, though. Tydrion was whirling like a mutant ballerina, and this time he didn't wait to get a claw in position, but stomped down with one of his forward legs, capped with pincer-like claws 18 inches long.

The move surprised me, but I danced aside, casting Energy Ward in the process. My defensive aura wrapped me with an extra bubble of defense. No way it could stop one of his blows, but it could help deflect them a little and help me dodge just a little better.

The claw slammed into the ground with another explosion of sand. I withstood the sand blast and raked a clawed at it, but lacked enough force to do anything. Energy Ward started draining health from the giant crab to replenish my own stores, but no way it could drain enough to make a difference.

Then I had to dive aside as he finished his spin and tried crushing me to paste again. Rolling to my feet, I made sure I was inside the charging zone for Potential Hammer. I needed those charges, and fast. Tydrion came after me, slamming down one claw after another, making me dance and dive and tumble to avoid them. I suddenly wished my Agility was 10 times higher.

It was crazy high already, and that was the only reason I managed to keep ahead of his swings. Barely. But that was no way to win the fight. One slip-up and I'd be toast. Or jelly, I guess.

His strength was too overwhelming. It eclipsed my own, even though mine was boosted by my followers and my Alpha nighttime Lunar Dominance perk that added another 10% on top of everything else. I activated Spellseer's Gaze, and Tydrion's entire giant body blazed with the light of mana.

As a level 99 elite lord, he must have a ton of mana. Instead of using it to attack me with spells, it looked like he was applying all his magic to reinforce and empower his crab, making it stronger and faster.

I could work with that. As soon as I focused, my new tier-1 Mana Control ability flooded me with insights about the mana he was using. It was a hybrid water-life mana I'd never felt before. Must be a specific attuned mana he developed, or maybe it came with the crab form transformation.

The Mana Domination part of Mana Control allowed me to control all mana within 12 yards, which was enough to affect the entire giant monster, as long as I stayed in close. Time to put the shiny new ability to the test.

Even as I nimbly danced aside from another descending claw attack, I seized the mana around both of us and pulled it away from his giant body, denying him access to replenish his mana pools. At the same time, I changed all the nearby mana to Convergence mana.

Even better, I could feel his body-enhancing spell wrapping his giant crab form. I tore at it, attempting to disrupt it and weaken him.

His body shuddered and he nearly stumbled as his fast-moving legs slowed suddenly. He was too big for me to easily suppress his spell, but I could make things harder for him. And if Tydrion hadn't yet realized he couldn't replenish his mana stores, he would soon. No doubt his current pools were vast, but if he ran low, he wouldn't be able to get more. I just had to keep the fight going long enough,

Whether he understood that time was now against him, or my efforts had simply annoyed him, he redoubled his efforts to smash me flat. His plan was simplicity itself. Smack me down hard enough to knock me out and end the fight. Then he could whisk me back to his queen for whatever nasty end she planned.

At least he was only trying to hit me, using those claws like giant fists. If he caught me in one, he could probably cut me in half. Even little Earth crabs had incredible crushing power. At his size, he could probably crush an armored truck.

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I'd slowed him fractionally, and over time I'd weaken him, but that wasn't enough. I needed that Divergent Strike to reset, and I needed a lot of activity to build a ton of charges for Hammer Strike. So I played a dangerous game and stayed in close, dodging each blow by narrow enough margins to keep him attacking in the same way. He had to expect one would connect and one-shot me to win the fight.

He didn't connect, though. For nearly 3 long minutes, I kept it up, dodging again and again with the help of Energy Ward, while steadily draining Tydrion's vast pool of health and preventing him from renewing his mana pool. He grew more and more frustrated, and clearly disliked the shouting encouragement of the mermen and women.

He'd expected to destroy me instantly, but here I was keeping the dance going too long. With every move, I raked my claws against his giant ones. He ignored the moves, since the scratches weren't deep enough to cause damage.

They were deep enough to mark a rune onto his shell, though. His rage grew as I methodically set up a rune sequence. He was too strong, so I'd use that strength against him. My Runesmith ability had reached 21, and I needed to leverage it.

Just as I made the final mark and activated the rune, I hurled a potion of Napalm against his face. The superheated liquid fire splashed across his shell and eye stalks, doing little real harm, but really pissing him off. Perfect.

He reared up, then slammed down with both claws and the entire weight of his front half. If he connected, he wouldn't knock me unconscious, but would splatter me like a bug.

I held my ground, but at the last second used Phantom Step to phase to incorporeal. His enormous claws blotted out the sky as they slammed down onto the space where I stood, totally encasing me. The impact should have gone off like a bomb and shaken the island.

Instead, his claws stopped dead like he'd slammed them into the side of a mountain. With the sound of a tiny brass bell ringing, my rune rebounded the enormous hit right back in his face.

The sheer amount of raw power burned out my rune in a flash of incandescent light that seared right through the shell of his claw, and a wave of power exploded upward into Tydrion's face.

His entire enormous body catapulted up and backward like I'd uppercut him with a tank. He somersaulted 4 times, legs scrabbling at the air, before he slammed down onto a small hill so hard it sank under him, spraying dirt and sand in every direction.

"I love runes!" I laughed as I dropped back into the real world and rushed the upside-down crab. Even that hit hadn't cracked his shell, but he had to be disoriented. Maybe now I could do some real damage.

I rushed in, but his body pulsed with a burst of energy and one claw swept out at several times its normal speed. It caught me totally by surprise, and the mighty backhand smashed right through Energy Ward. It was like getting hit by the side of a truck. The impact would have splattered my Earth self into bits of bloody rain. The brutal hit still rattled me, but my layers of new armor proved their worth.

40% of the blow got nullified instantly by the legendary effect of my Colossus Mantle armor, filling my KEG pool farther than ever. It also dispersed much of the rest of the blow incredibly well. So well my Death Catcher Waffle didn't need to trigger.

My health took maybe a 10% hit. That was all. Of course, the sheer mass of the blow still catapulted me off my feet and sent me rocketing off the island and out over the lake fast enough that I'd either hit the cavern wall over half a mile away, or skip like the biggest stone all the way there.

That gave me plenty of momentum to use. I twisted in mid-air, then cast Shadow Walk, with my target shadow on his opposite side. I appeared 20 feet behind him, still rocketing forward at incredible speed and struck like a cannonball, claws first.

I unleashed Divergent Strike again, which had just finished its halved cooldown, along with that huge new KEG charge. I tossed in 3 potions of Earth Immunity this time too. I struck the side of his upside-down shell with all my Strength, empowered by all that momentum, plus all that stacked magical power.

It was like flying face-first into the side of a cliff. I crashed to a stop with a brutal impact worse than his backhand, but my claws drove hilt deep into the thick shell and my magic and force struck like a literal meteor. Stone and dirt exploded from the impact point and the outside edge of Tydrion's shell cracked with a loud snap.

I bounced off, rattled so badly, I barely stuck the landing, and the brutal hit actually helped him roll over and regain his feet. That could have gone better. I'd cracked the shell, but done no actual harm.

Tydrion, appearing unslowed and only angered by the recent hits, twisted around to bring his deadly claws back into action.

"Buenos Aires!" I cursed as I shook my head and inspected my claws. The left one appeared undamaged, but my right blade was wrecked. The left-most prong was totally gone, and the other 2 bent and mangled. I muttered a long string of curses. I loved those blades, and without them, I'd be totally screwed.

I might be screwed anyway. This was not working. I'd hit him with enough force to splatter a whale or smash a huge hole in the side of one of those clockwork Brass Leviathans and all I'd done was crack the shell a little.

The stupid crustacean spun around, 6 legs fast-stepping. I'd have to take out each leg, I guess, until I—

A new thought hit like a lightning bolt across my brain. It distracted me so much, I nearly missed a dodge. Only Energy Ward's nudge reminded me to move. We resumed our deadly dance, but my control over the local mana had slipped, allowing him to at least partially refill his mana pools. He sped up, clearly angered by the delay and the minuscule damage I'd dealt. At least he didn't have vocal chords so I didn't have to listen to him monologue.

Time to switch things up.

With a focused bit of will, my Colossus Mantle armor vanished, replaced by my smooth, green Overlord Chitin armor. I grinned as my muscles swelled with the 10% Strength boost, and that wasn't even the good part.

For a second, Tydrion paused, one claw half raised for another attempt at whack-a-dude. The black eyes on their stalks rising above his carapace leaned down to peer at me, and his entire body shivered. I got the notification I'd hoped for.

"Tydrion is affected by the Berserker condition. His Strength will double, while his Agility and Intelligence will fall by half."

In his current form, he was a crustacean, and crustaceans, like insect mobs would react to my Overlord armor with unstoppable rage. Tydrion was already strong enough that a single good smashing hit might knock me out of the fight, so as dangerous as the doubled strength might be, it didn't change things.

What I needed was the drop in Intelligence and Agility. I needed him slower and dumber until I figured out how to stop him. I was honestly surprised I'd remembered that obscure bit of the armor's description. Maybe my Intelligence and Wisdom stats were paying off, or maybe it was a nudge from my ability The Show Must Go On.

The giant crab made a gurgling roar somehow and slammed both claws down at me. This time the move seemed slow, as if he was pushing through invisible mud, and he telegraphed it way in advance.

I danced aside with plenty of time to spare before his claws smashed down in an explosion of sand. I withstood the barrage, already lunging in, Wolverine claws on my left hand driving into the big joint where his right claw met the arm. I poured in the available KEG charge. It wasn't nearly enough, but it was something. I dumped in 3 more potions of Lightning Immunity and hit with another blast of raw electricity.

This time, the hit wasn't strong enough to blast off the limb. My hit was weaker, I could only attack with one claw, and the joint was much larger, but I made a mark. The enraged Tydrion raised his claws again and once more tried to smash me. I danced aside, and the process repeated.

From the ring of onlookers packing the sands at the edge of the water, Corvath's voice boomed.

"Dishonor!"

That actually made me laugh. It was okay to set me up to die, but not for me to creatively defend myself?

I got to work and kept up the pressure, hammering that joint behind his right claw with my own single good one. Each of his swings came in as ponderous and heavy as a crane, broadcast well in advance, so I easily dodged, then hit back.

Again and again we played out the same movements, like a video stuck on repeat and I slowly ripped apart the armor of the joint. I mixed up which potions I combined, and added everything from my constantly refilling KEG charge. I kept the fast-building charges of Potential Hammer in reserve for a finisher, once I figured out what that might be.

More and more purple blood flew with every strike, but the tiny wounds just enraged him. Then my blades punched a lot deeper and he froze in pain for a second.

I ripped them out and slammed them home again, once more pouring in my KEG charge, plus Ice Immunity potions. This time I crouched low and punched up from above so I could trigger Upper Cut.

The spell doubled the damage again, and this time my claw blades drove to the hilt. That was still barely halfway through the joint, but it had to hurt. Then I ripped across the joint with the 4 ethereal blades that appeared out of the back of my hand from the spell.

That finally did some damage. The joint gaped open, half severed, and I tore terrible spiritual damage through it, severing his connection to his extremity. The claw flopped down, the pincer ends falling weakly open.

Tydrion made another weird bellow. The terrible injury only ticked him off and he tried bludgeoning me with the wounded claw again.

"Gondor!" I cursed as I again dove aside. Gondor? So Cyrus was using fictional cities too. Didn't matter.

All that work for nothing. He could still pummel me to death with the dead claw. He was just too big, too strong, and too well armored for my tiny claws to accomplish enough.

I needed an advantage, so I scanned my inventory, gaze lingering on my weapons. Not helpful. Pushing them aside, I noticed an item I'd never used before. It wasn't a weapon. I tried it.

A shiny penny flipped into the air and landed on the sand with the image of a hand facing up. Instantly, a hand the size of a house appeared in the air above Tydrion and slammed down like the world's biggest flyswatter.

I only barely dove aside before the world-shaking impact drove the giant crab down into the ground so hard and so deep, his body pretty much disappeared. Only his long eye stalks remained.

I laughed. "I can't believe that worked!"

"The penny triggers a spell, so it's not technically cheating," Cyrus said. "I was wondering how long it would take before you tried that."

I had though it was a gag gift.

"Bad Pun Penny. Flip the coin to summon a giant hook to drag the target bodily into the nearest solid object or summon a giant hand to slap the target neck deep into whatever surface they are standing on. Cooldown: 5 minutes."

I also hadn't really expected it to work on the enormous crab, but I was getting desperate. Now, hope restored, I verified the penny had returned to my inventory, and rushed toward the submerged crab. Behind me, the merfolk were shouting, but I ignored them and focused on my enemy.

I finally had a chance to do some real damage, and I couldn't waste it.